rate.

"And there's the same difference in everything else," continued Betty.
"The same difference that there was between Cinderella's pumpkin and her
gilded coach. It was a pumpkin all the time, only it looked different
after it was bewitched. And do you know," she said, with a charming
little burst of confidence that made Lloyd's heart warm toward her, "I
began to feel bewitched myself, from the first moment that godmother
spoke to me? She called me Elizabeth, and at home I am just plain Betty.
Oh, I think it is perfectly beautiful to have a godmother."

She looked shyly up at the face above her with such a winning smile that
Mrs. Sherman drew her toward her with a quick hug and kiss. Lloyd gave a
little wriggle of satisfaction. "I'm _so_ glad you've come!" she cried,
so completely won by Betty's artlessness that she forgot her first
impression.

"Heah we are at Locust," she said, as they drove into the long avenue.
"I wish you could have seen the trees when they were all in bloom. It
was like a picture."

"It is like a picture now, I think," said Betty, gazing up at the giant
branches overheard that seemed to be waving a welcome. There was a
listening expression on her face, as if she understood their leafy
whisperings. Lloyd and her mother exchanged glances, and after that she
was disturbed by no word until the carriage stopped. They understood her
silent pleasure in the great trees that they themselves had learned to
look upon as old friends.

At the house Betty leaned forward for an admiring glance at the tall